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I'm impressed with this little product!

I always have cotton wool in my house as I use it constantly for a variety of uses including removing nail polish and removing eye make-up and the like. I find that at times I prefer to use the little cotton wool pads that are widely available in all good drugstores and supermarkets, as they are a convenient size and thickness for most of jobs I need cotton wool for.

I had ran out of my usual brand of cotton wool pads recently, and when I realised that I had none at all in my house I popped to my local grocery store to see what they had on offer. I use cotton wool at least twice a day and therefore I couldn't afford to be overly fussy about what brand I was buying and the like. I figured that any offering would do, as it had to be better than nothing!

My local grocery store actually had a half-decent little selection of appropriate products, and I opted to buy the "Pure & Soft" cotton wool pads. There are 80 circular pads in the package, and I paid around 75 pence for this purchase.

The packaging is a cylinder-shaped plastic sort of 'bag' with a drawstring top, that allows for easy opening to the package, and I find that it also allows the contents to be kept free of dust/grime and the pads are therefore always hygienic to use. This is important to me as I use these little pads on my face a lot of the time, and around my eyes in particular, so I like the fact that the packaging can be kept securely closed in-between uses.

The pads themselves are of the same size that you would associate with any similar product, measuring approximately 6cm across. I find that this is more than sufficient for the purposes I require these little pads for, which is mostly removing eye make up and applying toner to my skin.

The pads live up to their name and are indeed very soft. I do find them to be a bit softer, and are certainly less 'scratchy' feeling when rubbing over my skin than some other brands of cotton wool pads that I have purchased in the past, especially those that are at the cheaper or 'value' end of the market. I have not experienced any sort of problems at all with the Pure & Soft brand and I think they feel remarkably soft to the touch.

When using the Pure & Soft cotton wool pads, I find that they do not disintegrate altogether, the way that some other types of cotton wool does. I find that I can douse my little pad with liquid, toning solution say, and it remains intact until I have finished the job in hand.

I also find that the pads can be separated quite easily, so that I am left with two slightly thinner pads. If I am being honest, I think that the overall thickness of the Pure & Soft pads are slightly thinner than some other brands I use regularly, so this obviously means that my two pieces of 'separated pad' are thinner as a result. As I only ever separate cotton wool pads for little jobs - removing nail polish from a smudged area on my finger, say - this isn't a huge problem for me personally, although other users may find that they need to use a whole pad instead of separating them to achieve a better result.

On the whole I was fairly impressed by these little pads, so much so that I would actually consider buying them instead of my usual brand. They perform just as well as other pads, and they carry out my skincare and beauty regime requirements perfectly.

As I am getting the same amount of pads in the package, but for less money than what I would normally pay for a similar product, which is just over a pound, I don't see any reason why I shouldn't convert completely to this little brand in the future.

I would award these little cotton wool pads full marks as I cannot honestly fault them at all. If you see them in discounted drugstores, pharmacies or grocery stores I would definitely suggest giving them a try - I'm impressed!